Sooza's Knitting Stuff

 

I haven't done much of Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern so far but I thoroughly enjoy her writing style and her practical and sensible approach to knitting. The modular Tomten Jacket for a small child seemed a good project to venture into EZ's knitting world for the first time.

Since I wanted to knit the jacket in a worsted weight cotton/microfiber blend I calculated the needed amount of stitches for the circumference according to my gauge and went on from there. The back is made longer with 5 short row sections. The pattern is fairly easy to knit and you can modify and change it to your heart's delight. At some point it seemed as if the garter stitch would never end though.



 

It turned out as a nice, slouchy jacket that can be thrown over when spring or summer air turn a bit chilly. Even though I had the feeling the sleeves would be wayyyyy too long they could actually use a few more rounds. But this will be easily fixed.

Details
Pattern: Modular Tomten Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Size: probably a size EU 104, 2 to 4 yrs
Yarn: Lang Yarns Kappa (97% Cotton/3% Polyester; 125m/50 g); 4 skeins fuchsia, 2 skeins purple
Needle: 4.5 mm

 
Spring has really arrived in our neck in the woods and I am mighty glad for it. It's so lovely to see all those trees in full bloom and the hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and not to forget those pesky dandelions, which are a pain in the neck. Our little vegetable patch seems to do nicely, too. The salad peeks out and we'll hopefully complain about way too many radishes some time in near future.
 

 
Besides spring feeling there is still lots of knitting going on in the house of Sooza. The latest finished shawl I'm mightily proud of. I took the basic construction of Miralda's Triangular Shawl and added in different patterns. The pretty hearts edging is from Nancy Bush's Greta Garbo Shawl which is pictured on page 2 of my copy of "Knitted Lace of Estonia". Unfortunately the shawl pattern isn't included in the book due to space restrictions or something. So I took the photograph and charted the edging by examining it closely. Initially I wanted to fill the inner part of the shawl with the star pattern only. But somehow the Greta Garbo pattern stitch wouldn't leave me alone. So I gave in and took the basic Greta Garbo pattern stitch from Bush's book and incorporated it in the shawl.
 

 
Knitting this shawl has been tremendous fun and a great knitting adventure. Should I ever find the time I actually plan on publishing this pattern. There's been lots of requests on Ravelry. If it just wouldn't be quite as time consuming to make the charts, check the numbers, write some halfway readable instructions and put it all into a nice layout.
 

 
This has been the second time I've worked with this particular yarn and I absolutely love it. It's so different from the over-processed stuff that you can buy in your run of the mill local yarn shop. It has body and loft and blocks so nicely. And the best thing is, the un-dyed heather grey is much, much softer then the dyed yarn I've used for Miralda. Both shawls used only one skein of this light fingering weight yarn. IMO, this is the most fun you can't get out of a measely EUR 6.95.
 

 
Details
Yarn: 1 skein of Filcolana New Zealand Lammeuld, 600 m/100 g, light grey heather
Needles: 4mm
Size: 170 cm wide, 70 cm deep
Pattern: Inspired by Nancy Bush's Greta Garbo Shawl. Construction similar to Miralda's Triangular Shawl. Star pattern for shawl body from Laminaria shawl.
 
More details on the Ravelry project page.

 
It might not always seem that way if my recent blog posts are anything to go by but I've indeed been knitting away on all kinds of things and managed to complete a few of them. My latest infatuation has been a shawl pattern from the book "Knitted Lace of Estonia" - Miralda's Triangular Shawl. It's one of those bottom-up constructions that has you cast-on a bazillion stitches that are gradually decreased on the course of your knitting to form a triangle in the end. Not my preferred shawl construction but this one looked so pretty, with the diamonds and the nupps, I knew I would succumb one of these days. It finally happened when I took a closer look at this pretty dark blue lace yarn that had found its way into my stash not so long ago. A nice 2-ply yarn with a bit of a rustic charm to it. I knew it would work fantastic with the lace pattern. Only problem was I had only 600 meters whereas the pattern asked for 750 meters of yarn. Mhm, bummer. But I'm not easily deterred. A closer look in Ravelry showed lots of projects in similar yarns with similar yardages and needle size combinations that had gotten away with 400 to 500 meters of yarn. Still not totally convinced but I cast on anyway. No risk. no fun.


 
All worked out in the end. This shawl has been knitted in record time because the ever decreasing rows have been a real motivation. The pattern was well written and I loved knitting with this rustic wool yarn. Instantly went and ordered a few more colors. The shawl itself turned out lovely, too. It's just the right size between scarf and shawl. Wasn't sure about the nupps at first but like the overall look of lace, nupps and solid areas.


 
What's a nupp, you might ask?! Well, it's those special kind of bobble Estionian lace knitting is well known for. On a right side row you increase 5, 7 or even 9 stitches from just one single stitch just to purl all those stitches back together in the following row. It's kinda tedious at first but once you've gotten into the rhythm of things it get easier. The nupps give a nice, three-dimensional effect and sometimes even look like little pearls worked into your knitting. Strange but neat.

Details
Pattern: Miralda's Triangular Shawl by Nancy Bush from Knitted Lace of Estonia
Material: 1 skein of Filcolana New Zealand Lammeuld, 100% wool, 600 meters/100 grams
Needles: 4 mm
Finished Size: 160 cm wide, 80 cm deep

There's been a few other projects that got completed in the last weeks, like my first pair of Socks out of Wollmeise Twin yarn for example. They belong to the best husband of all now and I'm really curious about how well the yarn will stand up to wear. My last Wollmeise socks were still out of 100% superwash and they were worn through in record time. The Twin yarn consists of 20% nylon so it's supposed to wear better. Yeah, well, seeing is believing.


 
Details
Pattern: Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: 2/3rds of a Wollmeise Twin skein, 80% Merino/20% Nylon, 466 meters/150 grams; color 'We're different Tant Grön...'
Needles: 2.5 mm
Size: EUR 41/42

And then there is this small shawl knitted from only one 50 grams skein of Malabrigo Lace yarn in the funky and intense 'Gernanio' colorway.


 
Details
Pattern: Birch Leaf Shawl sideways, my own pattern
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace Merino, 100% Merino, 400 meters/50 grams, color 'Geranio'
Needles: 4 mm
Size: 140 cm wide

And knitting continues, of course. I'm bit on a shawl binge right now so there is already the next one on the needles. It's Evelyn A. Clarks Prairie Rose Lace Shawl from The Knitter's Book of Wool.

It’s been a while since I’ve tried knitting two socks at the same time on circular needles. All I remember is a whole lot of fiddling. I wanted to give this thing another try because ending up with two socks at the same time sure sounds like a cool thing. And besides there's lots of people out there who swear by this method so there's got to be something to it.

So far it’s fun and I’m speeding along. There’s been a bit of fiddling and trial and error involved when I tried to find the right circular needle/s for this job. I went through 3 or 4 different needles from really long wooden circulars to two short circs but in the end the 2.5 mm/80 cm Addi Turbo lace made it. The join is fabulous and makes sliding stitches around effortless.

I'm using a hand-spun 3-ply yarn that actually ended up in the right weight range for socks. It's neither too thin nor too thick. Which was a surprise. It's the first time I did a real 3-ply yarn (as opposed to chain-/Navajo-ply) and I am totally in LOVE with this yarn. Couldn't resist its charms hand had to cast on something right away.


 

 

 

 

 
Fiber: Blue Moon Fiberarts Sheep to Shoe Kit, color "Fire on the Mountain"
Yarn: hand-spun 3-ply, about 420 meters per 120 grams (4 oz)
Spindles: Bosworth Minis in Karelian Birch and Walnut

This was one of those patterns that I instantly liked when first seeing it in Knitty. I like knitting with skinny yarn and skinny needles. And I like plain sweaters that can be dressed up or down according to occasion and mood. But somehow I never quite worked up the nerve to cast-on. The pattern was in my Ravelry Queue for a while and I checked other people's finished Thermals from time to time. In the end seeing all these nice sweaters on Ravelry and following the posts in a very inspiring Knit-Along on the German Knitters forum made my fingers itch to finally cast on. In the end it took me not quite three weeks from start to finish. I sewed in ends on Halloween eve while the door bell kept ringing incessantly and kids kept demanding treats.


 
Details
 
Pattern: Thermal by Laura Chau, Knitty.com Winter 2006
Yarn:Rowan Felted Tweed, color Whisper (SH141), 7.5 skeins (375 grams)
Needles: 3.75 mm
Modifications:

• Pattern is originally written for sock yarn with a gauge of 28 stitches per 4''. I chickened out on the skinny yarn and chose some Felted Tweed from my stash instead. It's still fingering weight yarn but is much more fluffy and lofty than sock yarn. The Felted Tweed gave me a gauge of 20 stitches per 4''. I had originally planned to knit the smallest size but with my gauge that would still have meant I'd end up with a HUGE sweater. I compensated by casting on only 200 instead of 224 stitches.


• Worked body much longer than pattern suggested.


• Didn't like how the button band looked on most Thermal sweaters on Ravelry. Worked it sideways and added two more buttons.


• Knitted the set-in sleeves from the top down according to directions in Wendy Bernard's book 'Custom Knits'. Worked like a charm. Did I ever mention how much I dislike sewing in set-in sleeves?

Comments:
This is a lovely, very simple sweater that wears very well. The waffle stitch was interesting enough to keep me interested but easy enough for TV knitting at same time. And even though I pretty much improvised this whole thing it turned out fitting really well. To top this awesome knitting experience off I found THE PERFECT buttons in your run of the mill department store. No fancy button store. Nope. Just Kaufhof at Alexanderplatz. They match the strange blueish/greyish/greenish (un-)color that Rowan called 'whisper' exactly. Wouldn't have thought this was possible.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The little hat was inspired by the Binary scarf that had been featured in Kitty.com, issue Winter 2006. It's knitted from 4-ply sock yarn and the binary code actually contains a message. I used the converter provided here to convert ASCII text into ones and zeros. It's a really fun knit. Currently working on another one for best husband of all.

It's not as if I wouldn't own a sizable stash of yarn and fiber to choose from. How does one choose fiber for the next project anyway? Well, this nice and soft Merino/Nylon top in the tempting colorway 'Magnolia' was calling to be spun as soon I had opened the parcel it came in from Zauberwiese. I divided the combed top in two halves and spun up each half on one of my two latest Kevin Rhodes spindles. Since I had 130 grams of this fiber in total I didn't dare using my wheel for plying because I was afraid the bobbin might be too small for the whole finished yarn and I was really not keen on breaking this lovely yarn. Alas, what's all those lovely spindles for? I knew I could easily fit 130 grams of a fingering weight 2-ply yarn on one of the larger spindles in my collection. The Quad from Tom Forrester did its job beautifully and my appreciation for spindles as a powerful fiber tool even grew, if that's at all possible.

The finished yarn was very beautiful but I wasn't really sure about the color distribution and the barber-pole effect in lots of places. Yet somehow my mind kept coming up with possible projects for this hand-spun. One pattern came up again and again. I took it for a sign and just went with it. Ishbel is a cute little shawl pattern by Ysolda Teague that everyone and their aunt has already knitted if Ravelry is anything to go by. Currently it has 3553 projects and counting. But you know, what can I say, it's what the yarn wanted to become. The kitting was done in about a week and was a delightful and addicting process. I used my new KnitPro Spectra needles in the 4 mm size. The more I knitted with my own hand-spun yarn the more beautiful it became. What a heady feeling to know that you've made this item nearly from scratch. Can only be beaten by knowing the name of the sheep the wool came from

Here's the story of my Magnolia Ishbel in pictures:


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Details
Pattern: Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: 2.65 skeins of Malabrigo Baby Merino Lace (100% Merino, 400m/50g), Color Pearl Ten 69
Needles: 4 mm
Size: Something between M and L.
Modifications:

• Knitted body much longer than specified in the pattern.


• For the collar I picked up 3 stitches for 4 rows. Don't know how the ratio in the pattern could have been achieved. Worked out fine.


• Added a feather and fan pattern to cuffs, hem and collar for some decoration and to keep edges from rolling.

Comment: This is a lovely and very easy pattern. Since it's knitted from the top-down you can incorporate modifications to your personal shape/taste/size as you go. Very cool. The Malabrigo lace yarn was a joy to work with and this won't be the last garment I've knitted from it. With only 150 grams of yarn you end up with a very nice wearable garment. Which means this is actually a fairly inexpensive knit.

Während des Umzugs habe ich mir extra eine recht einfache Anleitung ausgesucht, die man auch im größten Stress ohne viele Gehirnzellen einzusetzen stricken kann. Ein Featherweight Cardigan schien da genau richtig. Ich stricke ihn aus dem Origianl Garn, dem wunderbar weichen Malabrigo Lace. Das Jäckchen soll länger werden als von der Designerin vorgesehen, d.h. es sind noch viel mehr Reihen schmucklos glatt rechts zu stricken. Aber es macht trotzdem noch Spaß. Hier mal eine Detailaufnahme vom sehr schönen Garn in der Farbe "Pearl Ten".

While managing the moving adventure I totally needed a plain knitting pattern that would not require much brain or concentration. A Featherweight Cardigan seemed the perfect choice. I love my Whisper Cardigan/Shrug/Thingie and find that another very lightweight cardigan would really come in handy. I knitting this one out of the original yarn Malabrigo Lace. It's such a delight to handle and even though I'll knit even more plain stockinette than the designer intended (because I want my Featherweight considerably longer) it's still such a fun project. Here's a detail shot of the wonderful yarn in the "Pearl Ten" colorway.


 
Allerdings brauchte ich mal eine kleine Abwechslung von all dem glatt rechts Gestricke, und so wurde dieses kleine Tüchlein gestern fertig. Es ist nach langer Zeit das erste Strickprojekt aus handgesponnenem Garn und ich bin sehr begeistert. Ich werde mal mein Archiv abgrasen, ob sich noch mehr so nette Anleitungen für den Verbrauch einiger der Garne finden, die ich in den letzten Monaten von Hand gesponnen habe.

As much as I enjoy all this stockinette knitting I still needed a bit of a change. This little shawl/scarf pattern had been in my Ravely Queue for ages and it struck me as perfect for using up some of the hand-spun yarn that's been accumulating in my stash. I totally adore the finished project and am already thinking of other lace patterns that might work nicely in hand-spun.

 
Details

Pattern: Diamond Fantasy Shawl/Scarf by Sivia Harding
Yarn: hand-spun yarn from Pink Lady batts by Fiber Monster
Needles: 4.5 mm
Size: 140 cm wide, 70 cm from tip to neck

Bevor ich mich daran mache, 150 Umzugskartons zu füllen, hier noch ein paar Fotos meines letzte Woche fertig gewordenen Whisper Cardigans. Das Muster ist einfach umwerfend und besonders für klimatisierte oder leicht zugige Räume im Sommer ist dieses Teil sehr praktisch. Das Jäckchen ist ein Hauch von Nichts und lässt sich schnell noch in jede Tasche stopfen.

Before I start on filling up 150 moving boxes that are waiting in our staircase I'd like to share some pictures of the awesome Whisper cardi that I finished last week. It's a wonderful pattern that's perfect for air-conditioned or slightly drafty rooms in summer. It's so light you can throw it into your bag are prepared for everything.


 


 
Details

Pattern: Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig, Interweave Knits, Spring 2009
Yarn: Touch Yarns Mohair/Merino 2 ply (900 m/100 g), 80 grams
Needles: 3.75 mm circ
Size: M
Modifications:

• elbow-length sleeves without flared shaping (cast on 76 sts.)


• 30 rounds of ribbing


• cast off 12 sts. less for collar to avoid body hitting armpits


• worked 3 more short rows to compensate for more body stitches


• after blocking body measures 32 cm from ribbing to hem

Was das Stricken betrifft, so bin ich seit einer Woche fieberhaft dabei, einen Whisper Cardigan zu stricken. Dieses Sommerjäckchen lebt davon, dass ein feines Lacegarn auf relativ dicken Nadeln gestrickt wird und dadurch ein luftig leichtes Gestrick entsteht. Ich hatte da dieses wunderschöne Mohair/Merino-Garn von Touch Yarns hier liegen, welches ich mir vor Jahren einmal aus London mitgebracht hatte. Irgendwie konnte ich mich nie so recht zu einem Projekt mit diesem kostbaren neuseeländischen Garn entschließen. Aber dieses Jäckchen, das sollte es sein. Der Anfang war etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, da die Nadeln viel zu dick schienen und das glatt rechte Gestrick auch arg schrumelig und unordentlich aussieht. Aber nach einer Weile gewöhnt man sich dran und ich denke, Waschen und Spannen werden das Ganze richten. Besonders schön ist, dass die Jacke komplett nahtlos gearbeitet wird. Es gibt also praktisch nichts zu vernähen. Super.



Hannah Fettig's Whisper Cardigan has completely taken over my knitting time. This cute little lightweight cardigan draws most of its appeal from the fine lace yarn worked on relatively big needles. This creates an airy and summerly fabric. I've had this beautiful mohair/merino lace yarn in my stash ever since I've brought it back from London with me. I couldn't quite decide what to do with it for years now. But this cardi hit the mark. The start was a bit fiddly because the needles seemed way too big and the stockinette looked a bit wonky and crumply. But it got better after a few rounds and I guess washing and blocking will do the trick. I particularly like the fact that the cardigan is worked in one piece without seems. So there is nothing to seam or anything. How practical.

 
Neuzugänge in meinem Wollvorrat, die ebenfalls diese Woche eingetroffen sind - mehr Lacegarn und noch ein wenig Sockenwolle. Von beidem kann man eigentlich nicht genug haben. Die Knitpicks Garne habe ich bei Die Wolllust bestellt. Das Sockengarn kommt direkt von Claudia von der Dornröschenwolle.


 
Here are some new additions to my yarn stash that also got here this past week. It's some more lace yarn and a couple of sock yarn skeins. You can't ever have enough of either, in my opinion. The KnitPicks yarns were ordered at Die Wolllust and the sock is hand-dyed by Claudia at Dornröschenwolle.

Inspiriert vom Whisper Cardi, an dem ich gerade stricke MUSSTE ich am Wochenende doch noch schnell ein wenig für Nachschub an Lace-Garn sorgen. Nur so für den Fall, dass ich gleich noch einen zweiten Whisper stricken möchte. Er macht nämlich total viel Spaß. Und ein bißchen Auswahl an Farben braucht der Mensch ja auch, also habe ich gleich drei Farbtöne aus der herrlichen Malabrigo Palette bestellt. Vorgestern bei Jürgen Weidner und heute schon bei mir im Stash. So soll es sein Neben dem Garn mussten auch noch zwei Rundstricknadeln in den eher obskuren Größen 3,25 mm und 3,75 mm mit.

I'm totally fascinated by the Whisper Cardi pattern that I'm currently knitting and I'm seriously thinking about knitting a couple of them depending on how the first one turns out. But since my stash is perilously low on lace yarn I HAD to take preemptive measures and order some lace yarn. And you need a few different colors to choose from. Totally justifiable, right?! I placed my order the day before today at Jürgen Weidner and today the parcel got here and the yarn went into my stash. Yay! Couldn't help adding a pair of circulars in the more obscure sizes 3.25 and 3.75 mm.

Nicht sonderlich spektakulär aber letzte Woche fertig geworden: Polly Jean Socks in einem zauberhaften Frühlingsflieder. Das Muster war interessant und gleichzeitig sehr repetitiv und eignete sich damit hervorragend als S-Bahn-Projekt. Interessant war auch das verwendete Garn. Ich habe zum ersten mal Cascade Heritage verstrickt und mochte es sehr gern. Ich finde es ist etwas glatter und weniger fusselig als das reguläre Regia, Opal oder Lana Grossa und zeigt daher das Muster sehr schön.

Far from being exciting but they got done recently so they deserve a little picture and post in my blog. It's a pair of Polly Jean Socks in a lovely lilac color that are calling spring all around. The pattern was interesting enough to not be boring but repetitive tp serve well as my public transport project. As for the yarn, I've been using Cascade Heritage for the first time here and I quite liked it. To me it seemed slightly smoother than the regular Regia, Opal or Lana Grossa yarns and therefore shows off the pattern stitches beautifully.

Details
Pattern: Polly Jean by MJ Kim
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Heritage, lilac (75% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon; 100 g/400 m)
Needles: 2.5 mm
Size: EUR 42, US Wo 10
Modifications: Slight modifications when it came to the twisted stitches because I couldn't figure out how the designer wanted me to do them. I didn't differentiate between M1L and M1R. M1R gives me the cramps and I absolutely refuse to do something that NOONE will ever notice.

Ja, ich stricke auch noch. Zur Zeit arbeite ich mit viel Freude an einem gepunkteten Kleid fürs Mäuschen. Inspiration war hierzu zum einen der Westover "Dotty" von Kaffe Fassett aus dem Rowan-Heft Nr. 40 und zum anderen das unten abgebildete handgesponnene Garn aus dem Kammzug von Sunset Fibers. Ich habe das Garn so gesponnen, dass der Farbverlauf des Kardenbands erhalten bleibt. Details zum Projekt gibt es wie immer wenn es fertig ist.


Yes, I'm still knitting. At the moment I'm enjoying myself immensely with a little stranded project for my little girl. The dotted dress is inspired by Kaffe Fassett's vest "Dotty" from Rowan magazine No. 40 and the funny handspun yarn out of Sunset Fibers' handdyed Corriedale Top. I spun the yarn specifically to preserve the color transitions of the roving. More info on the project to follow as soon as it's done.